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USS Oneida

The second USS Oneida was a screw sloop-of-war in the United States Navy. During the Civil War, she destroyed the CSS Governor Moore and served in blockade operations. She was attached to the Asiatic Squadron from 1867–1870. She sank in 1870 outside Yokohama, Japan after the British steamer City of Bombay struck her and sailed off without rendering assistance. Japanese fishing boats saved 61 sailors but 125 men lost their lives. The American government made no attempt to raise the wreck and sold it to a Japanese wrecking company. The company recovered many bones from the wreck and interred them at the their own expense. The Japanese erected a memorial tablet on the grounds of Ikegami Temple in Tokyo and held a Buddhist ceremony in the sailor's memory in May 1889.

Civil War, 1862–1865

Shortly after commissioning Oneida sailed from New York and joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron commanded by Flag officer David Farragut. On 24 April she participated in the attacks on Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans, Louisiana, and drove off the Confederate ram which sank steam gunboat Varuna. Oneida destroyed CSS Governor Moore in a following engagement, the same date.

On 27 April Oneida destroyed obstructions in the Mississippi River above Carrollton, Mississippi, helping prepare the way for the Vicksburg campaign. In both passages of the Confederate works at Vicksburg, 28 June 1862, and 15 July 1862, by the Union Fleet under Admiral Farragut, Oneida was second in line.

In August 1862, under command of Commander George H. Preble, Oneida sank the steamer Lewis Whitman loaded with wounded troops. Early in the following month she failed in an attempt to stop the passage of CSS Florida into Mobile, Alabama.

From 15 October 1863 to 23 August 1864, under the command of Captain C.V. Gridley, Oneida served in blockade operations off Mobile, where on 5 August she participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay and the subsequent capture of CSS Tennessee. At a later date she witnessed the surrender of Fort Morgan at Mobile. Oneida decommissioned 11 August 1865 at New York